Vaccination card made mandatory in Uttarakhand schools

New Delhi: The Uttarakhand government has made the ‘Vaccination Card’ a mandatory document for getting admission in any government or private school of the state. The move is aimed towards boosting the overall immunization percentage in the state.

Any child who wants admission in play school, nursery or kindergarten, will have to provide this document up to his/her actual age. The state’s health department aims to achieve the goal of Universal Immunization Programme by this exercise.

Wherever the children without vaccination card or incomplete vaccination history are found, the government will be assigning experts to facilitate the immunization. This will be done in coordination with the ASHAs and ANMs of respective areas who will co-ordinate with the schools and collect information about children.

While the cards will be provided at the local level by health officials of the respective areas, the ones issued by private doctors will also be considered valid. As per reports, barely 61.3 percent full immunization was recorded in children between 9-11 months old in the early part of last year. The overall percentage only slightly improved to 68 percent later in the year.

Many parts of the country have witnessed resistance to the immunization efforts owing to various issues ranging from religious to lack of awareness on its importance. However, the state governments in tandem with central government have been working hard to achieve maximum immunization, utilizing whatever unique methods that could to motivate the parents of children to allow vaccination.